Final Edition of the Wine Book Club: A Vineyard in Tuscany

Today marks the final edition of the Wine Book Club, the online club for wine lovers who also love to read. Our selection was Ferenc Máté's excellent A Vineyard In Tuscany--part fantasy, part House Hunters: Italy, and part viticultural adventure. I picked Máté's book for our final book because so many wine lovers dream of becoming vineyard owners and winemakers. Máté lived that dream, and is a good writer, in addition. The result is a magical tale that transports you to the hills of Tuscany, introduces you to local characters and traditions, and makes you feel that you are right there to enjoy the experience with him and his wife.

My fellow readers agreed.

Wine Book Club stalwart Kori from the Wine Peeps describes the book as "your standard feel-good story of adversity and perseverance which ultimately results in a happy ending," but found that the "setting in the beautiful and romantic hills of Tuscany is what makes it special." Kori's been wanting to get to Italy, and this book "did nothing but reinforce my desire to make that trip." She recommends it to "anyone who loves Italian wine, is considering a trip to Italy, or who fantasizes about owning their own vineyard and winery."

Frank from the blog Drink What You Like likened the book to a "fairytale"--complete with "a famous wine making neighbor, [and] living in a historic structure in one of the most beautiful regions on earth." Still, what he appreciated were the "low-key moments of the book," which served to balance out the fairy tale and make it more real. Frank recommends the book as a humorous, quick read.

This month we were also joined by my friend Megan, the Wannabe Wino, who (though still in recovery from the massive amounts of reading she did in law school) agreed with Frank that the book was "a fairly quick read." She loved the home renovation and restoration aspects of the book as much as the descriptions of planting the vineyard and making the wine, but wished that there had been "a bit more info about the vineyards and how they chose to plant the grapes they did." And the book did nothing to diminish Megan's "seemingly impossible dream of someday owning my own vineyard!"

And, last but certainly not least, Jim the Vinegeek joined us this month. Jim's a relatively new blogger, who has been at it since June, and I'm glad that he joined in this month. Jim was drawn to Ferenc Máté's writing, and how it evoked the "sense of community with his neighbors and the various locals who help him with his rebuild and vineyard planting, and the connectedness to the land and the seasons." He wished that Máté was a bit less self-deprecating in his self-portrayal, however, and felt that he could (and should) be justifiably proud of what he achieved.

I'd like to extend a sincere thanks to everybody who supported this idea when I came up with it, and for Kori and Frank who were such dependable reading companions. I'm glad to have been part of the Book Club and rest assured there will still be lots of book reviews here on GWU$20.

Dreaming About a Vineyard in Tuscany?

This August, the Wine Book Club will be reading Ferenc Máté's A Vineyard in Tuscany: A Wine Lover's Dream. ($13.95; 11.16, Amazon.com). The author, like many of us, dreamed of one day throwing caution to the wind and making wine. His adventures in Tuscany's chi-chi Brunello di Montalcino region, in a 13th-century Italian building that used to house monks, is a great read, and a perfect escape for the end of summer.

It's also a perfect occasion to end the dream that was the Wine Book Club. It hasn't turned out quite as I hoped and though Kori from Wine Peeps and Frank from Drink What You Like have been stalwart supporters of this effort, we feel like there's not much interest among other wine bloggers--and you know what it's like to go to a book club meeting when you're one of three people in the room. It's OK, but part of what should make this fun is comparing what you think with many other people.

That said, I'm sure the three of us will keep reading wine books and reviewing them on our individual sites, but they won't be on a regular schedule and we won't be reading the same titles.

If you want to help sing the WBC's swan song, please join us in this journey through Tuscan wine making and living the wine life. As usual, please send any links to posts to the email in the left sidebar or leave the link in the comments section of this post by 5 pm on Wednesday, August 26. I'll post the final roundup on Thursday, August 27.

July Wine Safari: Africa Uncorked

This month the Wine Book Club, the online reading group for wine lovers and readers, read John and Erica Platter's Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory ($29.95; $22.76 from amazon.com). This book was a terrific escape for me, complete with pictures, compelling writing, unbelievable stories, and a true spirit of adventure. I highly recommend it to armchair travelers as well as anyone who thinks they lead a tough life. I'm here to tell you that you have no idea what tough is until you've seen the lengths people go to in order to grow wine grapes in arid, predominantly Muslim Africa.

I was joined this month by Kori from Wine Peeps, who was equally enthusiastic about the book. Like me, she was impressed by how dedicated the African viticulturalists were, and said "the book weaves a fascinating tale of how doggedly determined winemakers have accepted the challenge of producing wine when all the odds are against them."

The book is illustrated with pictures and wine labels, and is arranged by region, spanning the continent from north to south. The Platters begin in Morocco, travel east through Ethiopia and Kenya, hit the islands of Madagascar and Mauritius, before winding up in South Africa. Through every part of their journey the Platters combine their love of food and their love of wine with a sensitivity to local customs. One of the best parts of the book for me was how they managed to paint a portrait of African wine as a whole while retaining an appreciation for the local.

Thanks once again to Kori for joining me in reading this book, and I'll see you next month for another great read.

Out of Africa with the Wine Book Club in July: Africa Uncorked

When you think "wine" you may not immediately think "Africa." John and Erica Platter set out on safari to explore African wines in the July Wine Book Club pick, Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory. ($24.95, available through Amazon.com)

I have to confess I am extremely ignorant about African wine. I don't even know that much about the wines of South Africa, never mind what's going on elsewhere. So I am looking forward to finding out about where grapes are grown on the continent and about wine culture, too. A long time ago (so long ago I can't find the comment now!) a reader suggested the Platters' book. It's taken me a while to get around to it, but now that I've got it in my hands I'm really looking forward to reading it. Other critics have described the book as "wise and visionary" (Jancis Robinson) and "the most original wine book in years" (Hugh Johnson). So why not get yourself a copy and join us as we find out more?

If you do join in and want to leave your thoughts on the book you can either leave them in the comments below by Wednesday, July 29 or (if you have a blog) you can leave the link to your post here in the comments or send it to me via email. I'll post a roundup of the reviews on Thursday, July 30.

And if you want a recap of what we read last month, check out Kori's wrap-up of our reviews of Jamie Ivey's La Vie en Rosé over on her blog, Wine Peeps. Thanks again to Kori for hosting while I was away.

Looking at Life through Rosé-Colored Glasses

It sounds so idyllic. You love rosé wine. You love France. So you leave your life in London behind, start flogging rosé to skeptical French drinkers in busy market squares, and hope to learn enough to buy a bar that will specialize in the pink stuff.

As Jamie Ivey, his wife Tanya, and friend Peter discovered, however, things are never quite as idyllic as we imagine they might be.

Welcome to the June edition of the Wine Book Club, hosted this month by Kori from the Wine Peeps blog. Our book selection for this month was Jamie Ivey's La Vie en Rosé, a book that tells the tale of Ivey's continuing obsession with rosé wines.

I enjoyed this book--it was perfect escape reading, and it convinced me that I do not ever want to open a wine bar in France. Getting to experience the highs and lows of the process--from Ivey's halting attempts to communicate with the locals (all of whom know a great deal about wine) to the moment they plunk down money on a piece of property--was like watching friends dive off a very high cliff into formidably deep waters. I appreciated the bravery of what they did, but I have no intention of doing it myself.

La Vie en Rosé is full of the sights and sounds of the southern French countryside. From local festivals celebrating garlic to visits with local vignerons, Ivey is adept at bringing a scene to life in all its variety and with a fair bit of humor. My favorite parts were about the reaction that the French had to they Iveys' plans to sell nothing but rosé wine. Some were stunned, many thought the wine would be too expensive to appeal to people used to buying bulk wine from the local co-op, and others were incredulous. In spite of the odds, and in the face of lukewarm success, the Iveys remained committed to their mission to celebrate rosé.

The book was less about the wine than it was about French attitudes towards wine and food, and about the difficulties that anyone faces when they try to fit into a new culture. So if you're looking for a book that tells you a lot about rosé wine you may be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you want an up-close account of immersion in French food and wine culture, you will probably enjoy this book immensely.

One thing to note: Ivey is British, and this means that his sense of humor is decidedly British as well. His tone may strike some readers as offbeat and ironic. But if you like Peter Mayle's stories of life in Provence, then Ivey's writing style will be right up your alley.

This is the kind of book to pack into your bag when you're taking a weekend trip, or just want some pleasant, escapist reading with a wine-related theme. Thanks again to Kori for hosting us and I'll see you back here at the end of July with my reactions to another wine-related book.

Wine Book Club for June: Le Vie en Rosé

Kori from the Wine Peeps will be hosting this month's edition of the Wine Book Club, the online reading group for wine lovers. Our title this month will be James Ivey's recently-released Le Vie en Rosé, the follow-up to his successful book chronicling his efforts to find the world's best rosé wine, Extremely Pale Rosé. (St. Martin's Press, $24.95; Amazon, $16.47)

Even though both books are about rosé, there's no reason to worry if you haven't read the previous book. La Vie en Rosé tells the story of Ivey's decision to open up a wine bar in Provence that ONLY serves rosé wine. Ivey has a wonderful eye for local color, a real fondness for his French neighbors, and a curiosity about wine that is exemplary. This book is the perfect summer read, good for taking up your time on the morning train to work or for slipping into your carryon when you head out for your vacation. And I think it will especially appeal to all of us who fantasize about doing something--anything!--in the wine biz, as well as to those of you who are already working hard in it and know that it's not all laughs and glamour.

So pick up your glasses, get yourself a copy of Ivey's new book, and chill a bottle of rosé with it. I'll be in Europe when the roundup happens, so head over to Wine Peeps for further information on the title, how to alert Kori to your review, and more. Check back here later this month for some rosé reviews to get you in the mood, as well as my book review.

The Wine Book Club Wrap-Up for May

For May's edition of the Wine Book Club we read a book about the food and wine of Italy: Sergio Esposito's Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy. Kori from Wine Peeps picked our selection, and we had a number of people send in reviews (some posted previously). The book was a hit with readers, and comes highly recommended if you are looking for some summertime reading pleasure.

Esposito's book is part autobiography, part travel story, part food diary, and part oenological tale. Frank from Drink What You Like thought that Esposito's life was "fascinating and enviable"--a sentiment with which I concurred. I enjoyed the immediacy of his writing, and the sense that it gave that you were right there, traveling Italy with him and eating great food and sipping great wine. Kori from WinePeeps (who hopes that Italy is her next wine destination) describes the book as "a well-written memoir that makes you feel as if you are sitting at the table with the Esposito family, eating a scrumptious meal prepared with local ingredients and enjoying local wine." By the way, she warns, "the meal could last up to four or six hours."

Frank thought the book busted some myths about the life of a wine importer, too. He "noticed several parallels" with Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route which we read a few months ago. "In particular," Frank noted, "they both attempt to dispel the myth that the life of an importer is all glamour – traveling the world, tasting countless wines each day, dining at the finest restaurants, and hobnobbing with remarkable wine makers."

Earlier reviewers who posted reviews around the blogosphere agreed with our positive take on the book. Richard Auffrey, the Passionate Foodie, was similarly enthusiastic, praising the book's "easy reading style" which made him "hooked from the very first chapter. Sonadora, the Wannabe Wino, received the book as a gift and found that "the book made me want to go scoop up as many native Italian varieties as possible and cook up delicious cuisine to go with them." She took the book with her on a business trip, and found it a "great easy to read book." Evan Dawson of Lenndevours reported that Esposito's "stories are so rich that the reader will seek out the featured producers' wines and feel like they know the story of what is in the bottle."

That closes the book on this month's selection. Thanks to Kori and Frank, my indefatigable companions in the Wine Book Club. I'll have the summer reading list for you next Thursday--all inspired by summer travel and summertime dreams. Hope that you will join us next month for our next good read--and a glass of wine to go with it.

Travel to Italy with the Wine Book Club This Month

Sergio Esposito's life began in Naples, but he moved to New York when still a child. As a grown up, he found his feet--and his tastebuds--returning to Italy, first as an imbiber of Italian wine, then as a retailer, a sommelier, and finally an importer.

This month the Wine Book Club is reading Sergio Esposito's memoir of his experiences with the wine, food, and people of Italy in his Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy. ($24.95; available through Amazon for $16.47; paperback edition available May 19)

May's selection was picked by Kori from Wine Peeps, and as I leaf through the book I have to say I am glad she picked it. It looks like the perfect late spring read, a book to not only make you want to know more about Italian wine but to give you the experience of a summer vacation right from your own armchair.

If you have any other great "armchair travel" books with a wine slant, please leave your suggestions below. Now that the weather is turning warmer, it will be nice to turn to some evocative books that will take us away from it all without leaving our own house. Other summer wine reads? Suggest them, too.

As always, post your review or leave your comments in this post before 5 pm on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 so that I can include them in the roundup on Thursday, May 28.

April Wine Book Club: The Science of Wine

Welcome to the wrap up for the April edition of the Wine Book Club--this month known as Kori and Deb's Wine Club. We were the only two to crack the covers of Jamie Goode's The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass. If I somehow missed your post please let me know.

Both Kori of the Wine Peeps blog and I had the same reactions to this book. First off, we both applauded the author for his remarkable clarity. If you want someone to explain (as clearly and comprehensively as possible) everything from the science of cork taint to the reasons why oak influences the taste of wine, this is your book. My favorite parts were about pruning and trellising--perhaps because as an amateur gardener I really enjoyed the discussion of exactly how vines are trained. Kori was interested in the discussions of terroir, of climate change, and sulphur dioxide. If you are a science buff, you will also probably enjoy this book, because it really does talk about wine from a scientific standpoint and in so doing, explores just what can be scientifically verified when it comes to wine taste and what can't (or can't yet, like biodynamics).

But it's not for everybody. Readers with little scientific background may find, like me, that this is one for the reference shelves. As Kori put it, this was "not the easiest read." Kori cautioned the book was "way too complex for beginners or people who don’t really care about some of the factors that affect the taste and quality of wine," but did recommend it to people " in the wine business or studying for a wine certification."

Next month we will be reading Sergio Esposito's Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy. I'll have more information on the book on Tuesday, and hope that more of you will join us as we go traveling this summer.

April Wine Book Club: The Science of Wine

If you've ever wondered what brettanomyces is (and how to spell it), the April wine club pick is for you.

This month, join us as we read Jamie Goode's The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass. (University of California Press, $35.95; available through amazon.com for $23.73) As many of you know, Jamie Goode is not only a wine author and journalist, he's also a wine blogger. I'm hoping he brings the same lively, lucid style to his book that he exhibits on his blog. Whenever I go to Goode's sight I know I'll get terrific information, delivered with a sense of humor and some down-to-earth common sense.

All the reviews for this book praise its clarity and engaging style, so I'm looking forward to finding out more about the science behind the wine I drink. If you'd like to join in, please read the book anytime during the month of April, post a review before Wednesday, April 29 at 5 pm, and send me a link either here or via email to let me know you've done so. That way I'll be sure to include you in the round-up of posts on April 30.

March Book Club: Adventuring on the Wine Route

This month two fellow wine bloggers joined me in taking a wine adventure in France led by wine merchant extraordinaire Kermit Lynch.

This March, the Wine Book Club read Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France. It's a classic of the genre, combining an insider's perspective on wine with a traveler's tale of people, places, and things that Lynch encountered while en route seeking out great bottles to bring back for his customers in the United States.

Frank at Drink What You Like is taken with Lynch's fancy for "natural wines," but finds them difficult to find in his neck of the woods in Southern Virginia. He stocks up on them when he's in San Francisco, and liked the way Lynch was able to transmit his "excitement and passion" for wine throughout his book. Frank noted that Lynch was a pioneer in shipping wine in refrigerated containers, and that he has strong opinions about the problems associated with evaluating wine based on blind-tastings without food. A road-warrior himself, Frank celebrated his first full week at home this year with a Lynch-inspired menu of oysters and a nice bottle of Chablis!

Kori at The Wine Peeps also mentioned Lynch's innovative methods of shipping wine and his feelings about blind tastings. Kori and her dad, John, are proponents of blind tasting (though they do taste with food). This was a re-read for Kori, who first picked the book up when she went to Bordeaux in 2003, and would "still recommend it today, even though it is a bit dated." She found her favorite quote from the book on a dog-eared page: “One cannot do justice to a great bottle alone. Someone with whom to ooh and aah is indispensable, someone with whom to share the intellectual and aesthetic stimulation that a great bottle inspires.” Isn't that one of the great joys of picking up a book that you've read before? To see what struck you the first time? Finally, she especially recommends the book "if you ever plan to visit the wine regions of France."

For me, one of the most powerful aspects of the book came at the very beginning where Lynch contrasted the American approach to wine, "with our New World innocence and democratic sensibilities," which tends to make us feel that "all wines are created equal," with the French apporach. "The French," Lynch writes, "with they aristocratic heritage, their experience and tradition," have their "grand crus, premiers crus, and there is even an official niche for the commoners, the vins de table." This contrast worked on me throughout the book, and I felt like it announced at the outset that what Lynch experienced in France was a completely different world of wine that he was eager to explain and share with those of us still living in "New World innocence." I'm not sure we're still that innocent, but I agree that we approach wine very differently from Europeans and Lynch helped to clarify that for me.

Thanks to Frank and Kori for once more joining me in reading a great book about wine. I'll be announcing next month's title next week--and hope that you will consider joining us for the April Wine Book Club.

March Book Club: Adventures on the Wine Route

This March, why not take a mini-vacation along France's viticultural byways?

If this sounds good to you, please join the March Wine Book Club as we read wine merchant extraordinaire Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France (North Point Press, $18; available from Amazon.com for $12.44)

The reason I picked this classic wine book for March's assignment is because most wine lovers have no idea how the wine on the shelves of their local stores actually arrives there. When living in northern California, I was fortunate to be able to buy wine off of Kermit Lynch's shelves in Berkeley. His taste for great wine meant that what was in his store was intriguing and exciting. This book explains that this level of quality was no accident--it was the result of his travels around France.

This book is one part travel tale and one part wine diary. The rest is filled in with wonderful character sketches and Kermit Lynch's sense of humor and whimsy. I think you'll enjoy it.

If you want to participate, please read the book and post your reactions to it on your blog or other website by Wednesday, March 25 at 5 pm. Send me a link via email or in the comments to this post or my review later this month. I'll post a roundup as usual on the last Thursday, March 26.

Happy wine trails!

February Book Club Wrap Up

We had a small but choice turnout for the February Wine Book Club. Kori from Wine Peeps and I are the devoted duo still doggedly reading wine books and reporting on them.

This month we read the Kladstrups' Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times. This month, we were in agreement about the book, too.

Kori knew what to expect, because she read the Kladstrups' other book Wine and War. She enjoyed the longer historical span that Champagne covered, as well as the focus on a single region. Kori also enjoyed having the myths surrounding Dom Perignon debunked and finding out about the real monk behind the myth. You can click here to read her complete review, with some of the book's more memorable quotes.

We both agreed that the tales of the wine caves and how they served as bunker/employment center/hospital/school/opera house/ banquet facility for the region was astonishing.

We also both agreed that Champagne was getting bumped up on our list of wine regions we simply must visit. The Kladstrups are very good and conveying the history and flavor of the area, and making the reader want to know more.

In the end, both Kori and I recommend this book to anyone who likes history and Champagne. You'll get generous servings of both with this book.

Kori and I will be back next month. Why not join us? I'll explain why I picked the March title on Thursday. And for those of you who like advance notice, our next three books will be:

March: Adventures on the Wine Route, Kermit Lynch
April: The Science of Wine, Jamie Goode
May: Passion on the Vine, Sergio Esposito

February's Wine Book Club: A Book About Bubbly

For the Wine Book Club's February read, we turned to Champagne--the world's favorite bubbly beverage--and Don and Petie Kladstrup's critically-acclaimed book, Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times.

The book opens and closes with a trip to a battlefield. Don and Petie Kladstrup use these bookends to emphasize the fact that what is arguably the world's most glamorous wine comes from the same place on earth where a great deal of blood has been shed.

These kinds of contrasts--between glamour and war, between the luxury-loving Louis XIV and the disheveled Dom Perignon, between the underground world of the Champagne region's wine caves (complete with banquets, cabaret, and opera) and the German bombardment taking place overhead--occur again and again in the Kladstrup's book. The result is a highly readable and engaging account not only of how Champagne got its elegant reputation, but how that reputation was zealously guarded.

Champagne is not a chronological trot through the history of the beverage or the region--although the authors do follow a rough chronological framework. Instead, it reads a bit like you're accompanying the Kladstrups on a saunter around town. Along the way you meet some interesting people, learn some history, and visit some beautiful places. The Kladstrups are excellent tour guides, and clearly know their subject inside and out.

While the book is wide-ranging, it focuses on both the wine of the region and the period of the Great War--or World War I as its called in America. Maybe I'm having a hard time taking off my history hat, but I sometimes found all the jumping around from place to place and time to time a bit exasperating. It wasn't that I couldn't follow the Kladstrups--they write well, and the stories they tell are interesting. But I sometimes felt as though I just wanted them to tell the story simply, from beginning to end, and be done with it.

Despite my occasional moments of frustration, the book includes enough riveting detail and compelling story-telling to more than make up for a few rambling moments. What I will most remember from this book, for instance, are the accounts of life in the region's caves or crayeres during the Great War. The pictures were amazing. Seeing entire schools, bedrooms, banquets, hospitals in the caves was something else, and drove home the Kladstrups' point that Champagne, for all its elegance, is made from soil on which hundreds of battles have been fought.

Reading the Kladstrups' book made me want to visit Champagne myself and explore the region, its wine, and its history. I'd recommend this book to armchair travelers, World War I buffs, and anyone who truly loves the wines of Champagne.

I'll be back on Thursday with the wrap-up, so if you have a review to share, please send me a link or put the link in the comments here or on the announcement post.

February Wine Book Club: A Book on Bubbles

After a somewhat bumpy start, the next book up for reading and review in the monthly Wine Book Club is Don and Petie Kladstrup's Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times. (Harper Collins, $13.95; Amazon.com, $5.50).

I picked this book for the month of February because more bubbly is consumed in the US between January 1 and February 15 than over the remaining course of the year.

I think it's insane the way we think sparkling wine is only to be had at special occasions. This book sheds light on how we got the idea in the first place, and explores the wine region that has produced this famous, coveted beverage through good times and bad.

Even though this book examines wine history, I think most people will find it a bit more to their taste than the last book. Sorry--I am a historian! So grab yourself some champagne and get your hands on a copy of this book from your local library or bookshop. Then all you have to do is read along and tell us what you think.

I'm also open to suggestions on what to read in upcoming months. We'll be reading Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route in March and Jamie Goode's The Science of Wine in April. Possible books I've come up for the summer include Susan Sokol Blosser's At Home in the Vineyard, Ferenc Mate's A Vineyard in Tuscany, and Christy Campbell's The Botanist and the Vintner. Any thoughts? Additional titles?

If you post a review of the book on your blog, please do so by Wednesday, February 25 at 5 pm and send me the link via email or be leaving it in the comments section of this post. I promise I'll check back here for it. That way, I'll be able to include your reaction in my wrap-up post on Thursday, February 26. No blog? No worries. You can always leave your thoughts in the comments here.

January Wine Book Club Wrap Up: Notes on a Cellar Book

We had four participants in this month's wine book club--the first of 2009--and one review that was written by a wine blogger a few years ago but I'm including it anyway because it's a great review!

Except for me, people weren't all that enthusiastic about the book. I was wildly enthusiastic--but then again, I picked the book.

Here are what wine bloggers thought of George Saintsbury's Notes on a Cellar Book.

Jim Eastman from Music & Wine found there were language barriers standing between him and Saintsbury, but more importantly "I just didn't find his anecdotes terribly entertaining." Eastman preferred the chapters devoted to spirits, especially whiskies.

Kori at the WinePeeps wrote a review that was very much in line with Jim Eastman's. Like Jim, Kori found the language inaccessible and had to "keep a dictionary at my side" to clarify some of his terms. She recommends this book to "an academic or a history buff" (guilty!) She enjoyed the book but she does "wonder if it fits the palate of most of our readers."

Frank from Drink What You Like was struck by the picture on the cover and its resemblance to Dumbledore. He, too, found it "tough to read" and he found it "difficult to stay engaged." Though he praises the historical information found within, he doesn't recommend the book as a "general learning tool" for those starting out on wine.

Edward the Wino Sapien found "the freshness and directness of the words and familiarity of the names potentially disconcerting," and found that despite its age "many of the words and ideas still hold true."

Update:
I missed one. Sorry!
RJH from RJ's Wine Blog didn't like the book AT ALL. She was taken back to English Lit classes--and not in a good way. "Don't buy or read this one. Too heavy, allusive and not all that interesting," RJ said in conclusion.

I think these reviews will be quite helpful for people who are thinking about this book and wondering whether they will like it or not. If you're a history buff (or as I suggested a Masterpiece Theater buff) you will probably like this book. If not, then you might want to think twice.

Next month's book also has a historical bent, but it covers a bubbly topic, so hopeful it will be a bit easier to get through. I'll have full details and explain why I picked the title next Thursday.

Thanks to all the participants for their honest, well-written reviews. And I hope that more wine bloggers and readers jump on the bandwagon next month.

Wine Book Club: Notes on a Cellar Book

"There is no money, among that which I have spent since I began to earn my living, of the expenditure of which I am less ashamed, or which gave me better value in return, than the price of the liquids chronicled in this book. When they were good they pleased my senses, cheered my spirits, improved my moral and intellectual powers, besides enabling me to confer the same benefits on other people." George Saintsbury, Notes on a Cellar Book

Between 1884 and 1915 an English literature professor named George Saintsbury kept a series of notes on his wine, spirits, beer, and culinary adventures. First published in 1920, just as the United States was entering its experiment with alcoholic abstinence, his "cellar book" (as the notebook was called) was such a success it went through three editions in its first year of publication. Young American readers confessed to being so moved upon reading it that they immediately broke the law, drank Port, and toasted the author's health. Since that time it has earned its place many times over as a classic example of wine writing. That's why it made it to the top of the list for the 2009 Wine Book Club, and was my selection for the month of January.

Thomas Pinney thought that it was time for a modern, annotated reprint of the book--and as far as I'm concerned he was absolutely right. Now we can all have a copy of this wonderful, evocative book on the shelf, complete with notes to explain the more historical bits.

One 0f the things that makes this book a wonderful read is that Saintsbury had a wide-ranging interest in and curiosity about wine. That means he liked Burgundy as well as Claret from Bordeaux, and appreciated beer as much as vintage Port. The other thing that makes it wonderful is that it reads a bit like an episode of Masterpiece Theater--it's terribly British in its strong opinions. And so icing wine is politely but firmly designated as "barbarous." The size of the wine glass matters to the taste of the wine--or so Saintsbury believed, well before Riedel glases. And if you are going to have a special dinner, start with Sherry, move through Champagne to Claret then to Burgundy (DRC 1858 if you can get it...) and finish up with a Hermitage from the Rhone.

It came as a surprise to me that there was a concern about "big" wine even in 1923. "Once upon a time there was an author who though not a vintner wrote about wine, "Saintsbury reported, "and some of the experts found...fault with him as with one who leant too much to "bigness," "stoutness," and the like...." The offending wine was French Bordeaux--long before Parkerization--and the author was Saintsbury himself. "If you want delicacy," Saintsbury advises, "you don't go to the Rhone or anywhere in France below Gascony." What's more, Saintsbury thinks that people who refuse ever to drink a light wine, or to touch a heavy wine, are "irregular." Instead, someone truly interested in wine should drink whatever they can.

I love this book, and I love Saintsbury's writerly voice. He's curmudgeonly and opinionated but he is in no way narrow in his approach to drink. As such, he's an example to every wine drinker and writer in the 21st century.

GWU$20 drinkers may wonder if reading about fantastic bottles of wine from the 19th and early 20th centuries has any relevance to those of us looking for good, affordable, everyday wine. Saintsbury would say yes--and I would agree. For Saintsbury, what matters is that you drink as widely and well as your bank account allows and to learn the differences between wine without becoming a snob about it. Here's what he says: "Here, as else- and every-where in criticism, not only the hardest thing to attain but also the hardest thing to get recognized when attained, is the appreciation of difference [in wine] without insisting on superiority."

If this taste of George Saintsbury's Notes on a Cellar Book has wet your whistle, you can get the book from the University of California Press ($29.95) or from your favorite book retailer.

I'll post a roundup of any reviews of the book written by wine bloggers on Thursday, so send in your links if you participated in this month's club. The February title will be announced next week.

The 2009 Wine Book Club

There are some changes in store for the 2009 Wine Book Club.

We started out on a promising note last year, but by year's end participation had dwindled to a few die-hards, and even I was having a hard time keeping the calendar straight.

So, this year I will announce a new title for the WBC on the first Thursday of every month, and explain why I think it's a great book. If you want to read the book and post a review on your blog, you can do it whenever you feel like that month. Send me a note with the URL and I'll post a roundup on the last Thursday of every month.

There won't be guest hosts, or "spin the bottle" reviews. I hope, instead, that the flexibility will encourage more people to participate. And, I hope that doing it monthly (instead of every other month) will keep the WBC on more people's to-do lists.

The January 2009 Wine Book Club Book Selection is George Saintsbury's Notes on a Cellar-Book. (University of California Press, $29.95; available through amazon.com for $23.96)

January is a natural time for reflection about the past and thinking about the future, and Saintsbury's classic work of literature will encourage all of us to consider how wine culture has changed--and how it has remained the same--since the book was first published in 1920. For those of us who not only love wine, but also write about it, Saintsbury's prose will be inspiring. He is a beautiful writer, capable of evoking a world of pleasures and sensations in a single, powerful sentence. He's also a thoughtful writer, and shares his struggles to convey something as mysterious and personal as your taste of a wine with a reader.

I'll be eager to read about your experiences with the book. Did you like the history, or did you find reading about how one man drank wine nearly a hundred years ago too remote? If you write your own tasting notes--either for personal use or for publication--do you think that you will write them differently, now that you have read Saintsbury? What will you remember about this book, long after you put it back on your shelf? A particular wine? A particular place that Saintsbury enjoyed a tipple?

For those of you who are planners, here is the schedule for the next three months of the WBC. I've used many of the suggestions I received last year, and will continue to plan three months out. That way, we can add newly released books when people are eager to read them, rather than putting them at the end of a long, long queue. If you have additional suggestions--whether new releases or classic titles--please leave them in the comments. We will get to them, I promise.

February: Don Kladstrup, Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times

March: Kermit Lynch, Adventures on the Wine Route

April: Jamie Goode, The Science of Wine

Please send me URL links to your reviews of Saintsbury's book by Wednesday, January 28 so that I can (if necessary) write a round-up post on January 29.

Election Day Special: Wine Politics Roundup

Today we have an Election Day Special: a roundup of all the reviews of Tyler Colman's book Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink.

Our reviews mark the 5th edition of the Wine Book Club, and the last meeting for 2008--because no one is going to post a review between Christmas and New Year's Eve, are they? So it's all the more fitting that we mark the end of 2008 and the end of the Bush administration with a book dedicated to helping us understand the complicated political journey that wine takes from grape to glass.

We had some Wine Book Club veterans and some first-timers, too. So here is a roundup of some of their thoughts.

First time Wine Book Club participant Jim Eastman from the blog Music and Wine praised Colman's accessible style, noting that "it managed to keep me engaged without fail through the whole book. Eastman's main criticism of the book was he felt it was a little too short to cover such a broad-ranging topic in so few pages. Jim wanted more--"A little extra depth and perspective" was the way he put it--which I can tell you from personal experience is the kind of criticism an author can live with. When a reader wants more, that's a good thing.

Another first time WBC participant, Frank Morgan from the blog Drink What YOU Like, described the book as "academic and thorough." Frank found the Colman's coverage of the topic "fascinating," and while he did sometimes get "lost in the details a couple of times," the book changed the way he "looked at a glass of wine." My favorite line in Frank's review was saved for the end: "My major takeaway from Wine Politics is an increased sense of appreciation for the small wine guy and the crap they go through just to produce and sell wine to me!"

Christianne from the blog Christianne Uncorked (also a first time WBC participant) found the book was "PACKED with information about wine, history, and politics," but she sometimes found that the organization left her feeling a bit "distracted." She particularly would have liked more of Colman's informal writing and less of the formal academic style.

Taste B from Smells Like Grape added her two cents on the book, saying that it was a "breath of fresh air" given the other books she's reading for an academic course at the moment. What she most enjoyed about the book was that is wasn't just a rehash of things she already knew about wine. Instead, Colman "weaves together many observable and oft discussed conditions in the wine industry with little-known catalysts to form some pretty stark revelations."

Wine Book Club veteran Kori from the Wine Peeps made it clear that this was not the book for you if you were looking for "basic wine information or for a recommendation on what bottle of wine to drink tonight." However, "a lot of information is packed into this relatively short 148-page read," and Kori found the message thought provoking. "If you really want to know why you can’t buy a bottle of wine you fell in love with on a recent trip to California and have it shipped to your home," Kori recommends you pick up this book and learn why.

Richard the Passionate Foodie, another WBC veteran, recommends this well-written book to "those who are more passionate about wine, who enjoy learning about more than grape varieties and wine regions." While it may not appeal to the novice, Richard feels that wine lovers will appreciateColman's "measured and neutral stance" on his more controversial topics, where he presents arguments for both sides of troubling questions.

Thanks to Tyler Colman, our own Dr. Vino, for writing this excellent book which really did convince me that any drinkable wine produced in this country is a miracle, given the laws that stand in the way of winemakers and consumers. And thanks to all the participants this month.

The next edition of the book club will be announced in early December, and reviews will be due in late January--so stay tuned for another year of the Wine Book Club.

Wine Book Club #5: Wine Politics

By the end of Tyler Colman's excellent book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, I could only come to one conclusion: it's a miracle that we are able to find anything at all that is decent to drink.

Welcome to the 5th Edition of the Wine Book Club, the online book club for wine lovers who also like to read. I'm the host for this month's event, and for my theme I was inspired by the season. What better way to celebrate September and October than to read a book written by a genuine PhD (September is back to school month) about wine and politics (we are in the midst of an election)? This idea was even more appealing given that the author may be better known to those of you who read wine blogs as Dr. Vino, the award-winning wine blogger.

Colman's book compares the way that politics has shaped wine culture in France and America. One of the most striking things about the story he tells here is that, along with politics, there are two other "P"s that have played an equally active a role in determining what you drink: phylloxera, the louse that destroyed grape vines all over the world in the 1870s; and Robert Parker, the critic who began telling us what we should drink in the 1970s. Phylloxera, it turns out, led to such a collapse in the worldwide wine business that it opened the door to greater governmental control and intervention as people sought to limit fraud, graft, corruption, and lost income. And Parker helped people to wade through seas of indifferent wine with misleading labels at a time when Americans were still drinking like it was Prohibition and they'd rather mainline the hard stuff than drink a glass of wine with dinner. The ripples he sent out from his one-man business in Monkton, Maryland in the 1970s now threaten to engulf us in wave after wave of homogeneous wine made to please Parker's influential palate.

I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable about wine history, but I was surprised again and again by the nuggets of historical lore and sharp analysis that Colman includes here. Lately, I've been wondering why we don't buy wine in bulk here in the US like they do virtually everywhere else in the world. Turns out it's due to a combination of Prohibiton (and the resulting patchwork of legislation) and something called the Office of Price Administration that was established in World War II. Until then, wine was shipped in tanker trucks and on the rails to 1500 bottling facilities studded all over the country. And thus the enormous carbon footprint of wine began!

Colman's message is sobering, even though his book is a delight to read with its clear prose and fluid style. The bottom line is this: when money, egos, and bureaucracy collide--as they do in the wine business--it becomes almost impossible to do what is best for consumers, the environment, and the winemakers themselves. With everybody taking a cut in wine sales, from the bottle makers to the distributors to the retailers to the government, it really is astonishing that anyone bothers to make wine at all. And in case you're thinking the situation is better in France, let me assure you it isn't--it's just different.

If you enjoy Colman's blog, you are in for a treat since this book is written in the same direct, engaging style as his blog posts. The book has great graphic features (like a comparison of how politics shapes French and American wine blog labels) and informative sidebars that offer the reader opportunities to pause and consider the issues from a fresh perspective.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you find yourself wondering why you don't know what grape is in a French bottle of wine, or why it is that an American wine is labeled "Cabernet Sauvignon" when 25% of the grapes in it are Syrah. The answer to both questions is simple. Wine Politics. After reading this book, you'll never think about the relationship between the two in the same way again.

Tyler Colman's Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink was published by the University of California Press, who sent a copy of the book to me for review. It retails for $27.50, but you can buy it on Amazon.com for $18.15.

If you are participating in this month's online club, please leave comments and/or links to your own posts below. You can also leave links at the Wine Book Club site, or on our mirror site on Shelfari.